Business to business applications over the Internet have become increasingly popular. One type of business to business application in particular is a supplier network in which members of the supplier network buy and sell goods and services. For example, members of the supplier network may be screened and/or agree to a service contract with a supplier network provider (e.g., Ariba) that provides them with systems and/or applications to generate and/or manage purchases.
Punchout is a convenient feature associated with some supplier networks that permits up to date information from a seller to be presented to a buyer and (if desired) imported into an e-procurement system. For example, a supplier website typically has the most up to date prices and/or products offered and this up to date information is presented to the buyer to make a decision and (if desired) a structured data object representing the desired product is communicated to the buyer's e-procurement system (e.g., for approval). Traditionally, a website designer has to implement punchout protocol code on a supplier's website; these modifications are not trivial. It would be desirable to develop new techniques that make it easier for smaller suppliers or other website owners to implement punchout.